Material: Bronze
Style: Lumajang, East Java, Indonesia
Size: Height 21 cm,  Diameter 7.5 cm
Order Number: MHSAM1

Lime Container with an anthropomorphic lid. 

This cylindrical  lime container has an elongated finial in the form of a mask-like human face with a  classical stylized heart-shaped design containing large bulbous eyes, raised mouth and  nose, and looped ears.

The top and bottom of the body of the container are decorated with wide bands of rope-like decorative motifs.

Bronze containers of this type were used to hold lime powder. The basic ingredients of a betel quid are betel leaf, areca nut and lime powder. These containers show that betel chewing went back a long time.

They were made by the local bronze industry. They are not Dongson imports from Vietnam.

They are rare and were found by East Java farmers digging in their fields in the last decades of the 20th century.

The copper alloy has a  blue/green patina.

About 2,000 years old.

300 BC – 100 AD.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer)

The post Antique Java Moko Lime Container appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bronze
Style: Bali
Size: Height 6.5 cm, Length 8 cm
Order Number: MHSD1

About 2,000 years old.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer)

The post Dongson Birds appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bronze
Style: Bali
Size: Height 45.5 cm, diameter 38 cm, circumference 120 cm
Order Number: DD1

Background: Dongson drums are named after the Bronze Age culture of Dongson in North Vietnam, which dates back to 6th century BC. The popular hour-glass shaped drums spread throughout Southeast Asia. The largest known is “The Moon of Pejeng”, which is housed in a temple in Bali, and measures 186 cm in height and 160 cm in diameter. It is the height of a man and about 2,000 years old.

They were cast in 2 sections by the lost wax method. The flat top tympanum and great tubular body were later joined by a cuff. Decorated by concentric circles and geometric motifs, between the handles are some of the earliest representations of human faces in Indonesia.

The Balinese believe that the Moon of Pejeng was the wheel from the chariot of the moon goddess and that it fell into a tree as she was driving through the night sky.

The post Dongson Drum 1 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bronze
Style: Alor
Size: Height 32.5 cm, diameter 38.5 cm, circumference 127 cm
Order Number: DD2

Background: Miniature Dongson drums, known as Mokos, remain the only acceptable currency for buying a bride in the eastern Indonesian island of Alor.

The widespread distribution of these drums in South-east Asia suggests trading networks yet to be fully understood and transfers of technology among cultures in the region that awaits to be fully researched.

The post Dongson Drum 2 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.

Material: Bronze
Style: Bali
Size: Height 32.5 cm, Diameter 23.5 cm, Circumference 74.5 cm
Order Number: DD4

The post Dongson Drum 4 appeared first on Murni's in Bali.